The plans to narrow Maple Avenue to enhance safety continue to attract controversy, this time from stakeholders in the Dallas Medical District.
Maple Avenue in Dallas’ Southwestern Medical District (SWMD) is set to be narrowed to make room for a new bike lane. The problem? The street is a major thruway for patients and staff in the three major hospitals in the area: UT Southwestern, Children’s Health, and Parkland, home to one of the country’s busiest emergency rooms.
This is not the first time Maple Avenue stakeholders have raised issues with the planned road transformation.
Earlier this month, The Dallas Express reported that some business owners along the road were not contacted about proposed changes. They claimed the safety project, which will span roughly 2.5 miles from Oak Lawn to Mockingbird, will smother traffic and hurt retail spending.
“That would create real traffic problems, both for our patients who are trying to access emergency care, often, who cannot go to any other health facility for their services because they are uninsured or underinsured and other facilities won’t accept them,” said Michael Malaise, vice president of external relations for Parkland, per KERA News.
Around three million patients pass through the Southwestern Medical District annually, which employs roughly 42,000 people.
“Maple Avenue is already an important thoroughfare that directly impacts the medical facilities. It will become of even greater importance as a transportation link when the new Pediatric Hospital opens and upon implementation of the SWMD’s Master Plan which relies on Maple Avenue to alleviate the strain of traffic on Harry Hines Boulevard. Maple Avenue is not just another street. It is vital to the Medical District and alterations could have significant impact,” wrote David W. Biegler, Chairman of SWMD, to Ghassan ‘Gus’ Khankarli, Director of Transportation for the City of Dallas, in a note earlier this month.
Like some business owners on Maple Avenue, Michael Malaise, vice president of external relations for Parkland, says the City did not consult stakeholders from the district enough.
“There was some discussion that Parkland knew about this the whole time we were on some committee that came up with this plan that is just categorically incorrect… At no point was there ever any discussion of reducing lanes to Maple Avenue,” said Malaise.